Multimedia system based e-commerce

ABSTRACT

E-commerce techniques, in accordance with embodiments of the present technology, provide an improved buying experience integrated with the television viewing experience. A multimedia system for implementing the e-commerce techniques includes a two way communication system such as a set top box, display device and remote controller. The set top box and display device are used to present enhanced content including one or more offerings to users. The users can use the remote control to complete a purchase transaction for one or more of the offerings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are a number of multimedia based e-commerce techniques. Forexample, conventional multimedia system based e-commerce techniquesinclude television shopping channels, infomercials, pay-per-view contentprogramming and on-demand content programming. However, currente-commerce techniques typically require the user to use the telephone,an internet enabled computer, or specialized remote controller tocomplete a purchase transaction. The need to use such additional devicesdetracts from the viewing experience and impedes impulse shopping.Accordingly, there is a continued need for multimedia system basede-commerce techniques that improve the user's viewing experience, cancapitalize on impulse shopping, and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present technology are directed toward multimediasystem based e-commerce techniques. In one embodiment, an e-commercemethod includes a two way communication system for receiving enhancedcontent including an offering. The enhanced content is output to a useron a display device. The display device or two way communication systemreceives a trigger from user activation of a given remote control inputindicating the selection of the offering. The indication of theselection of the offering is sent by the two way communication system toa service provider in response to the trigger. Additional informationconcerning the offering is then received by the two way communicationsystem from the service provider. The additional information concerningthe offering is output to the user on the display device. One or moreadditional triggers are received by the display device or two waycommunication device from user activation of one or more remote controlinputs indicating selection or input of one or more parameters orattributes concerning the additional information about the offering. Theindication of selection or input of one or more parameters or attributesis sent to the service provider by the two way communication system.Therefore, the entire transaction may be completed through themultimedia system using a standard remote control.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of exampleand not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elementsand in which:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an e-commerce system, in accordance withone embodiment of the present technology.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show a flow diagram of an e-commerce method, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the presenttechnology, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. While the present technology will be described in conjunctionwith these embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intendedto limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, theinvention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications andequivalents, which may be included within the scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detaileddescription of the present technology, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the presenttechnology. However, it is understood that the present technology may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knownmethods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described indetail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the presenttechnology.

Referring to FIG. 1, an e-commerce system 100, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present technology, is shown. The e-commerce system100 includes a multimedia system 105-125 coupled to one or more networks130, 140. Typically, the multimedia system 105-125 is coupled to anetwork of a service provider 135 (e.g., cable or satellite provider).Additional networks 140 may communicatively couple one or more productand/or service vendors 145 to the service provider 135.

The multimedia system 105-125 includes at least one display device 105(e.g., television or monitor), one or more content sources 110, 115directly or indirectly coupled to the display 105, and a remotecontroller 120. The one or more content sources 110, 115 include a twoway communication system 110 for receiving content from a serviceprovider 135. In one implementation, the two way communication system110 may be a set top box, such as cable tuner or satellite tuner. Inanother implementation, the two way communication system 110 may benetwork TV with source over IP. The content sources 110, 115 may alsoinclude other consumer electronic devices such as CD/DVD player 115,VCR, DVR, game console, stereo, personal computer and/or the like. Theremote controller 120 can be used by the user 150 to control the contentsources 110, 115 and display 105. In addition, individual contentsources 110, 115 and/or the display 105 can command and control eachother without user 150 intervention.

In one implementation, the display 105 and content sources 110, 115 arecoupled by a Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) compliant bus. Forinstance, in one implementation, the display 105 and content sources110, 115 are coupled by high definition multimedia interface (HDMI)cables 125 and the display 105 and each content source 110, 115 includesa CEC protocol based communication interface (e.g., CEC complianttransceiver). CEC enables automatic equipment discovery and simple “onetouch” operation in HDMI-interfaced consumer electronic devices. TheHDMI is a “party line” serial bus that connects up to ten audio/visualdevices through standard HDMI cabling. The HDMI standard utilizes theCEC protocol to provide high-level control functions between devices inan HDMI network. The CEC protocol includes automatic mechanisms forphysical address (e.g., topology) discovery, logical (e.g., product typebased) addressing, arbitration, retransmission, broadcasting and routingcontrol. Message opcodes support both device specific (e.g., set-topbox, DTV and player) and general features (e.g., for power signalrouting, remote control pass-through, and on-screen display).

The service provider 135 delivers multimedia content to a user throughthe two way communication system 110 (e.g., set top box). The serviceprovider 135 may also provide products and services for purchase by theuser 150, such as on demand movies and pay-per-view content,subscription based content such as premium channels and the like.Additionally, other vendors 145 may provide products and services suchas electronics, jewelry, food, clothing, travel, hotel accommodations,and the like for purchase by the user 150 through the service provider135.

Operation of the e-commerce system 100 will be further explained withreference to FIGS. 2A and 2B, which show an e-commerce method 200 inaccordance with one embodiment of the present technology. The method 200includes outputting enhanced content on the display device 105 of thee-commerce system 100, at 210. The enhanced content includes an offeringto a user. The offering may concern one or more products and/or servicesoffered by the service provider 135 and/or one or more vendors 145. Theenhanced content may be received from the service provider 135 by theset top box 110. The set top box 110 may encode the enhanced contentusing the CEC protocol or the like. The CEC encoded enhanced content maythen be communicated to the display 105 on the HDMI link 125. Thedisplay device 105 may decode the CEC encoded enhanced content andrender the enhanced content to the user 150 as audio and/or video.

The enhanced content includes control information concerning a triggerfor selecting the offering. The control information may indicate thatthe activation of one or more buttons on the remote control is a triggerfor indicating selection of the associated offering included in theenhanced content. The enhanced content may also include a visual and/oraudio indication of the trigger associated with the offering.

At 220, a trigger is received as a result of user 150 activation of agiven remote control 120 input. The trigger is an indication of theselection of the offering by the user 150. In one implementation, theuser 150 may press a button on the remote 120, such as the enter button,to activate the trigger. The enter button may be specified by thecontrol information to be the trigger because pressing enter normally isnot a valid input unless preceded by pressing one or more other button.However, it is appreciated that activation of any other button orsequence of buttons that is not currently a valid input for any otherpurpose may be used. Generally, the remote control 120 generates a CECprotocol encoded control packet indicating activation of the givenbutton. The display 105 or two way communication system 110 (e.g., settop box) receives the control packet and recognizes it as the triggerindicating selection of the offering by the user 150.

At 230, the indication of the selection of the offering is sent to theservice provider 135. For network TV, the TV would either consume theCEC command and pass the corresponding trigger to a network stack, or ifIP is an external module, pass along the CEC command to the external IPmodule. At 240, additional information concerning the offering isreceived from the service provider 135 in response to the sentindication of the selection of the offering. At 250, the additionalinformation concerning the offering is output on the display 105 to theuser 150. The additional information may provide for selection orspecifying one or more parameters and/or attributes associated with theoffering. For example, the additional information may indicate availablechoices and allow for selection of the choices and/or entry ofadditional details for completing a transaction concerning the offeringvia the remote controller 120.

The additional information may be received by the two way communicationsystem 110 (e.g., set top box) as additional enhanced content. The twoway communication 110 may encode the additional enhanced content usingthe CEC protocol. The CEC encoded additional enhanced content may thenbe communicated to the display 105 through HDMI 125 connection. Thedisplay device 105 may decode the CEC encoded additional enhancedcontent and render the additional enhanced content to the user 150 asaudio and/or video. The additional enhanced content may replace theoriginal content (e.g., television show, movie or commercial), bepresented in a picture-in-picture pane in the original content, overlaidover the original content, or the like. For instance, the additionalenhanced content may be overlaid as one of a plurality of layers of agraphics plane with one or more planes being partially transparent sothat the additional information is viewable along with the originalcontent. The additional enhanced content also includes controlinformation concerning one or more triggers for selection or input ofthe one or more parameters or attributes using the remote controller.

At 260, triggers from user activation of one or more remote controlinputs indicating selection or input of one or more parameters orattributes concerning the additional information about the offering isreceived. For instance, a user may use the remote control to select fromavailable color and sizes, specify a quantity and confirm his or herpurchase of the offering. The selection and/or input of one or moreparameters or attributes of the offering may be buffered in the display105 or two way communication system 110. At 270, the indication of theselection or input of one or more parameters or attributes are sent tothe service provider 135. The display 105 or two way communicationsystem 110 may then send the selection and/or input of one or moreparameters and/or attributes back to the service provider 135 as abitmap, vector or the like. Additional information, such as a digitalcertificate, encrypted account identifier and/or encrypted password mayalso be sent by the two way communication nsystem 110 in response to agiven trigger indicating that the user 150 has confirmed the purchase ofthe offering. The processes of 240-270 may be iteratively performeduntil enough information to complete or terminate the purchase of theoffering has been received from the user 150.

The additional information and selection or input of one or moreparameters or attributes may also be sent and received from additionalservice providers associated with the offering, such as secureelectronic payment services, credit card company or banks, or the likeFurthermore, the additional information may include purchasing limits orcredit limits. In addition, payment may be made through the user'saccount with the service provider 135. The service provider 135 may alsoreceive revenue from the other vendors for supporting the e-commercetechniques. For example the service provider may receive a fixed fee orpercentage of purchase price (e.g., 1% sale) from each transaction.

Furthermore, the data concerning the enhanced content including theoffering, triggers, additional information, selections and input of oneor more parameters and attributes and the like may be communicatedbetween devices of the multimedia system 105-120 using dynamicallocation of the bandwidth of the HDMI 125, as described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/875,792, Filed Oct. 19, 2007, entitled “CECEnhancement” which is incorporated herein by reference.

In one implementation, a user 150 may be watching an infomercial or atelevision shopping channel. Along with the normal content of theinfomercial or TV shopping channel, enhanced content may include an iconthat is overlaid on the normal content indicating a trigger event suchas pressing the “enter” button on the remote to purchase the productbeing offered at the time. When the user activates the enter button onthe remote controller, additional enhanced content may be sent from theservice provider. The additional enhanced content may provide choicesconcerning the selected offering and triggers for selecting or inputtingsuch choices. For example, a graphical user interface overlaid on thenormal content may provide pull down menus that may be navigated usingthe up and down volume buttons on the remote and the key pad may be usedto select particular choices from the active pull down menu. Once allchoices concerning the offering have been selected by the user using theremote control, the choices can be sent to the service provider 135 orforwarded through the service provider 135 to the vender 145 selling theoffering to complete the transaction. No special remote control 120 isnecessary to receive information about the offering and/or complete thepurchasing transaction. Any CEC compliant remote 120 may be used.Furthermore, the entire process can be completed with the remote 120,without having to also use the telephone or an internet enabled computerto complete the transaction.

In another implementation, a user may be watching a commercial. Thecommercial may include enhanced content that specifies a trigger.Although, a user may not receive a visual or audio indicator of theprompt, the multimedia may respond to a trigger specified in theenhanced content. In response to activation of the trigger, additionalenhanced content may be sent from the service provider 135. Theadditional enhanced content may replace the original commercial withchoices for purchasing the advertised product from one or more retailersor directly from the manufacturer. For example, an advertisement for anew DVD release of a movie may allow the user to purchase the DVD fromone or more retailers 145 using the remote control 120 to select from agraphical user interface that overwrites the normal commercial. The user150 then completes the purchase transaction with the retailer 145through the service provider 135.

In another implementation, many shows and movies now contain productplacements. The enhanced content of the show or movie may specify atrigger. When the user activates the trigger during a given sceneadditional information concerning offerings associated with one or moreproduct placements in the scene may be displayed in a picture-in-picturepane. The user 150 may use the remote control 120 to navigate theadditional information to select and/or input one or more parameters orattributes concerning the offering to complete a purchase transactionfor the product featured in a given product placement.

Similarly embodiments of the present technology can also be utilized toaddress other needs. For example service providers 135 or advertisers145 could conduct surveys via the television 105. Surveys conductedthrough the television 105 utilizing enhancements to the CEC protocolcan provide a much broader and more diverse sample population than iscurrently used, thus improving the survey results.

Accordingly, embodiments of the present technology provide an improvedbuying experience integrated with the television viewing experience.Embodiments also open up new avenues of revenue generation for theservice providers and credit companies. Embodiments of the presenttechnology can also provide data for improving targeted advertising,thus improving effectiveness of advertising.

The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the presenttechnology have been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of the present technology and its practicalapplication, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilizethe present technology and various embodiments with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It isintended that the scope of the invention be defined by the Claimsappended hereto and their equivalents.

1-20. (canceled)
 21.

at least one computer readable storage storing instructions executableby a processor; and at least one processor configured for accessing thestorage and executing the instructions which when executed by theprocessor configure the at least one processor for: receiving enhancedcontent from a service provider, wherein the enhanced content includesmultimedia content, an offering, and control information associated witha signal for selecting the offering; outputting on a display device themultimedia content and the offering; receiving the signal from useractivation of a control device indicating selection of the offering;sending an indication of the selection of the offering to the serviceprovider; receiving additional information concerning the offering fromthe service provider in response to sending the indication of theselection of the offering; outputting on a display the additionalinformation concerning the offering; receiving at least one additionalsignal from user activation of a control device indicating selection orinput of one or more parameters or attributes concerning the additionalinformation about the offering; and sending an indication of selectionor input of one or more parameters or attributes to the serviceprovider.
 22. The device of claim 21, wherein the device is implementedby a set top box.
 23. The device of claim 21, wherein the device isimplemented by a display device configured to receive information fromthe Internet.
 24. The device of claim 21, wherein the device isimplemented by an apparatus configured to control a display device. 25.The device of claim 21, wherein the instructions when executed by theprocessor configure the processor for receiving from the serviceprovider the additional information concerning the offering asadditional enhanced content.
 26. The device of claim 21, wherein theinstructions when executed by the processor configure the processor foroutputting the enhanced content on a display device.
 27. The device ofclaim 26, wherein the instructions when executed by the processorconfigure the processor for communicating the enhanced content to thedisplay device using a consumer electronic control (CEC) protocol on ahigh definition multimedia interface (HDMI).
 28. The device of claim 26,wherein the instructions when executed by the processor configure theprocessor for receiving the activation encoded using the consumerelectronic control (CEC) protocol.
 29. The device of claim 26, whereinthe instructions when executed by the processor configure the processorfor receiving the activation through the display device.
 30. The deviceof claim 26, wherein the instructions when executed by the processorconfigure the processor for receiving the additional informationconcerning the offering from the service provider as additional enhancedcontent, and outputting the additional enhanced content on a displaydevice.
 31. The device of claim 30, wherein the instructions whenexecuted by the processor configure the processor for communicating theadditional enhanced content to the display device using the consumerelectronic control (CEC) protocol on the high definition multimediainterface (HDMI).
 32. At least one server, comprising: at least oneprocessor; and at least one computer storage storing instructions whichwhen executed by the at least one processor configure the at least oneprocessor for: sending enhanced content including an offering to a usersystem; receiving a signal from the user system associated withselection of the offering; sending additional information concerning theoffering to the user system in response to receiving the indication ofthe selection of the offering for presentation of the additionalinformation by the user system; receiving one or more additional signalsassociated with selection or input of one or more parameters orattributes concerning the additional information about the offering; andreceiving an indication of selection or input of one or more parametersor attributes.
 33. The at least one server of claim 32, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor configure theat least one processor for receiving the signals from a set top box ofthe user system.
 34. The at least one server of claim 32, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor configure theat least one processor for receiving the signals from a display deviceof the user system.
 35. The at least one server of claim 32, wherein theinstructions when executed by the at least one processor configure theat least one processor for receiving the signals from a server of theuser system.
 36. The at least one server of claim 32, wherein the atleast one server is associated with a cable multimedia signal provider.37. The at least one server of claim 32, wherein the at least one serveris associated with a satellite multimedia signal provider.
 38. The atleast one server of claim 32, wherein the instructions when executed bythe at least one processor configure the at least one processor forencoding the enhanced content and additional enhanced content using aCEC protocol such that the enhanced content and additional enhancedcontent is transferrable in the user system across an HDMI.